50 Book Challenge 2017 Part Seven

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the seventh thread of the 50 Book Challenge for this year.

The challenge is to read fifty books (or more!) in 2017, though reading fifty isn't mandatory. Any type of book can count, it's not too late to join, and please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.

The first thread of the year is here, the second one here, the third thread here, the fourth one here, the fifth one here, and the sixth one here.

What are you reading?

57. The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan. Quite a good read but I lost interest in the last few chapters and skim read them. A shame as it was promising at the start. It's 1914 and a large liner sinks en route for America after an unexplained explosion on board. Much of the story takes place on a lifeboat with forty passengers from all walks of life, most of whom survive ten days or so before being rescued. This is followed by the trial of three key characters for manslaughter.

The tale of survival is an interesting one though.

Agree Emgee, I read that one and found it fell apart at the end.
From memory I thought there were quite a few loose ends that weren’t tied up too.

37. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Four strangers gather in a house with a sinister reputation to explore whether there is any evidence of supernatural goings-on. The set-up sounds schlocky, but Jackson is such a good, subtle writer that it's got an authentic and unsettling feel.

79. Margaret Thatcher: The Authorised Biography vol 1: Not For Turning by Charles Moore

I must admit to having started to read this quite a long time ago, but it's a hefty tome at 758 pages (not including the preface, acknowledgements, notes and index) in hardback so I couldn't really carry it around with me. Volume 1 covers her early years, Oxford, initial attempts to be elected to Parliament, the leadership challenge against Heath and becoming Prime Minister, through to victory in The Falklands. It's extremely detailed - Charles Moore started working on it in around 2003 and has had access to all her private and governmental papers, including letters in her youth and at Oxford to her sister, as well as speaking to the woman herself, former colleagues and intimates who also provided access to previously unseen papers, letters and diaries. All this was done with Margaret Thatcher's blessing and she had chosen Moore to be her official biographer, and it was also determined in advance that the biography was not to be published until after her death.

The chapters covering the early years of her premiership are particularly fascinating to me because I was so young at the time and so had nothing more than a superficial understanding, from summarised television reports looking back, of what she was dealing with. Moore has divided these chapters into themes, in effect, so there are the detailed arguments between opposing sides within the Cabinet over economic policy, the difficulties with reducing inflation and interest rates, the high levels of unemployment, Northern Ireland, Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, and of course The Falklands itself. Her position was extremely precarious in those first three years, a fact which I don't think I had realised before. And while Moore is very much an admirer he doesn't shy away from the errors that she made and the poor relations she sometimes had with those around her.

It's hard going at times and because of the level of detail can be quite dry, but it's well worth persevering. I suspect it will take me a while to get through volume 2 (1983 - 1987) as well but volume 3 isn't out yet so that's fine.

36. A Change is Gonna Come Various YA collection of short stories and poems on the theme of change, written by non-white writers both unpublished and published. A mixed bag. The best of these were excellent. The worst were a bit crap and MA-student-ish. It's part of a general push to get more BAME writers published, but it would have been a better book if rather than giving unpublished writers a slot, they'd offered those spaces to writers like Jamila Gavin and Malorie Blackman instead.

80. Golden Son by Pierce Brown

Unlike my last, this one only took me a couple of days...

Continuing from Red Rising - Darrow is still working his way into the heart of the Society in an attempt to overthrow it from within. Feuds from the first book continue, new alliances are forged, new enemies are made. This is a really good series. I'm hoping to get the third in the trilogy from the library this week.

Hello again, I keep leaving this thread for ages, I've really lost my reading bug recently, hopefully the change in the weather will inspire me to read more indoors!

51. Report for Murder - Val McDermid - a cosy murder mystery set in a boarding school, a hard-nosed Glaswegian lesbian journalist happens to be there at the time covering some fundraising event and sets out to solve the case. All very 80s but fun, might read another by the author next time I need cosy fluff.

52. A Gentleman in Moscow - Amor Towles - this is a lovely book. An Aristocrat in post revolution Russian is sentenced to house arrest in the hotel in which he was staying rather than death. This follows his life from then on in this small world.

Now I have to find something something new to read.

143. Dangerous Days In The Roman Empire by Terry Deary

Horrible Histories for adults. Despite the odd reference to sex and some quite graphic descriptions of what happens to the body following certain tortures, it still felt like I was reading a children’s book and the humour felt a bit forced at times. Good fun as an introduction to that area of history though. I got this as part of a set of 3 so will read the others although probably wouldn’t bother if I didn’t already have them.

144. The People At Number 9 by Felicity Everitt

This has been done before, and done better. Glamorous couple moves in next door and boring couple gets caught up in their lives and it doesn’t end well. I didn’t like any of the characters and the ending just fizzled out.

145. Little Black Lies by Sharon Bolton

I enjoyed the setting of this - the Falkland Islands - as I didn’t know much about that area of the world. The story was good - several missing children- but it all got a bit silly at the end which was a shame.

45. Kiss The Girls by James Patterson

I thought these Alex Cross books might be my new "beach read" series but I'm not really getting into them at all. This was OK, but I thought was much better as a film with the same name. That might be the Ashley Judd & Morgan Freeman effect, though.

106. Your life in my hands?- Rachel Clarke Searingly honest account of front line doctoring in the NHS. Rachel Clarke was born into a ‘medical’ family. She initially chose to pursue a career in journalism before retraining in her 30’s to become a doctor. She was at the front line of the Doctors strike in 2016, taking on Jeremy Hunt on Social Media and through Television. Memorably she hit the headlines by camping out 24/7 with other colleagues in front of the Dept of Health in a effort to persuade Hunt to re-engage with the BMA before imposing contracts. Tellingly he spent weeks sneaking into the Department through the back door. This book systematically and intelligently dismantles Hunt’s arguments surrounding the ‘7 day’ NHS. It highlights the daily struggle Doctors face whilst trying to balance workload and compassion, sometimes at the cost of safety. This is a must read for anyone who has ever felt frustration or love for the NHS.

20. The Road Cormac McCarthy. What a bleak novel! It’s written in a poetic, lyrical way which drawers you in, the conversations are unpunctuated and naturalistic (I challenge anybody to find a novel that uses the spoken word ‘okay’ in conversation as often as this one!) and we come to care for the protagonists, man and boy, we never learn their actual names.

Spoiler Alert:
Set in a post apocalyptic world some 8 to 10 years after the cataclysmic event, judging by the likely age of the boy who is born just after the world changes. In the chaos that follows the boys mother decides that waiting for the rapists and murderers to catch up with them is a life not worth living and commits suicide leaving her husband to protect and care for their son as best he can. He sets out for the coast where he believes things may in some way be better (they’re not!) and carries a pistol at all times, instructing his son on how to kill himself cleanly and quickly should the need arise At one point the man reflects that there isn’t a night that goes by when he doesn’t envy the dead; by that stage the reader is wholeheartedly agreeing with him. This isn’t living it’s a a brutal existence.
We don’t get to hear what has caused the apocalypse but the earth has become an ashen waste land. Few animals, no fish, the sun obliterated by ash and the trees and plants dead stumps.
The survivors are largely ‘bad guys’ or have become so. Slavery, murder, rape and cannibalism are rife, understandably the few remaining people are starving, desperate and terrified of each other, usually with good cause. Most preserved food has been ransacked long ago so the two protagonists trudge over the freezing wasteland living hand to mouth.
In one memorable scene they find what appears to be an inhabited house and jemmying open a locked trap door, hoping to find a cache of food, descend into what can only be described as a hellish scenario, I’m not sure I could hack watching the film for that moment alone.

I thought I already knew the ending of this novel, believing that the man used his last two bullets to kill first his son and then himself. And indeed this ending is frequently foreshadowed with the man wondering many times if he’ll have the strength to do it when the time comes. However thankfully I was wrong and the ending is a little less bleak than that, perhaps because of this I wasn’t sobbing at the end but somewhat relieved and uplifted.

Another stand out for me this year, a once read never forgotten kind of book.

• Draws you in, not drawers!

107. The Dry - Jane Harper Really enjoyed this. On half term and travelling so this took me just a day to devour. Real page turner of a murder mystery. First in a series which is a bonus.

I hadn't realised The Dry was the beginning of a series. I enjoyed it, although I thought the ending was a bit too convenient. Would definitely read another of hers though.

Agree about the ending Remus. Next book is out Feb 2018 apparently.

According to Amazon, Jane Harper's new book is published on kindle now but not out in hardback until February

Southeast I didn’t realise that. I was reading an old fashioned book for a change and it had some sample chapters at the back with a Feb publication date. Will try and resist the download as my kindle is overflowing with unread stuff. Not to mention my physical ‘to read pile’

105. Truly Madly Guilty, by Liane Moriarty.
     Superior chick lit. She keeps you reading for the plot (what happened at that barbecue?) but along the way provides convincing portrayals of marriages, mother-daughter relationships, and female friendship. There's a brief appearance by one character that is quite heartbreaking.

106. The Making of a Marchioness, Frances Hodgson Burnett.
     By the author of A Little Princess and Little Lord Faunterloy. The first half is a rags-to-riches story (will this humble woman have her merits recognised by the nobleman? Why, yes she will) and the second half is a melodrama (will the villainous plotters prevent her from delivering an heir?). I liked the way the author gently poked fun at the heroine's hero-worship of her husband - he's not that great, she points out, but love casts a halo. Reminded me a bit of my favourite literary couple, Terry Pratchett's Sam Vimes and Lady Sybil.

107. Now Dead Of Course by Phyllida Law
     She's probably best-known now as Emma Thompson's mother. Glancing anecdotes from her early life as a stage actress. None of her stories outstay their welcome, and her sense of amusement and pleasure comes through. Not as good as Letters to my Mother-in-Law, but a pleasant amuse-bouche between heavier books.

Something a bit different for my next book, Caesar's Last Breath, which is about chemistry. One of those cheerfully jokey popular science books that aimed at people with no scientific background and just want the human stories, which is fine by me.

Ordered the sample. Thanks, South.

101: The Fever Tree – Jennifer McVeigh
Bought this because it was 99p on Kindle and because I seemed to remember people on here recommending it. It’s set in South Africa in the late 19th century and was okay. The writer can write (astonishing how many things get published by people who can’t!) and it reminded me a bit of The Essex Serpent, a bit of The Dry and a bit of the best bits of the New Zealand trilogy I reviewed below in terms of its evocation of place. Unfortunately I just couldn’t sympathise very much with the central character, so it didn’t quite work for me. I’m also absolutely sick of reading books by modern women where female characters ‘allow’ themselves to be raped, and, in this case, even go back for more. Surely women owe each other more than that?

85.The Seagull - Ann Cleeves Latest Vera. As RMC said above, once you ignore the conflict of interest, it’s very enjoyable.

146. Dangerous Days On The Victorian Railways by Terry Deary

Next in the series of Horrible Histories for adults. This was better than the Roman Empire one. Again, an easy quick read if you want to find out a bit more about that area of history.

147. Birdcage Walk by Helen Dunmore

I was drawn to this as it’s set in Bristol which I know quite well. It led me to find the real Birdcage Walk, which is very pretty. Sadly, the book was very dull. I don’t think it helped that I listened to it on audible rather than actually reading it, so that made it feel slower moving plus the narrator’s voice irritated me. However I still think I would have found it boring if I read it - nothing much happens.

48. Happiness - Derren Brown
A welcome antidote to the usual self-help books on the market. A thoughtful exploration of Stoic philosophy and its application in modern times.

There was a lot of food for thought in this, in particular the section dealing with death. I liked the emphasis on a practical application of the principles and thought he explained the philosophical elements well.

32?? The horseman by Tim Pears

First in a triology set in the rural westcountry a hundred years ago. It took a while to adjust to the slow pace and dialect, but absolutely worth it. Reminiscent of Atonement, with the same evocation of a time and way of life past, it is centrered on a teenage boy with an affinity for horses in a community of farms tied to the local grand family. Astonishing level of detail on animal husbandry and seasonal habits of wildlife. The ending was pretty inevitable, and sets up the next book well. I find myself listening to the birds now.

33. Admissisions by Henry Marsh

I loved his first, and this was similar, but felt a bit stretched out of the same material, and disjointed in places. Retiring neurosurgeon reflects on significant patients and procedures, whilst detailing his increasing exasperation with the managerial led NHS, and focus on targets rather than humanity. His gentle observance that stoicism and acceptance of devastating diagnosis is rare, and that patients will find a Dr to do any procedure no matter the risk or cost is an interesting one, and his wistful recall of hospitals in green spaces, with daylight and privacy and windows that actually open resonated with me

50. The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell. Mitchell is a superb writer, who tells a cracking story while weaving together various characters, plot lines and themes over a 70-odd year period (from the 1970s to the 2040s). I absolutely loved this, as much as or possibly even more than Cloud Atlas. Nice for my 50th book to be such a good one!